Narendra Modi's first public brushstrokes of an infrastructure vision are Vajpayee-esque in their appeal. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the master of poetically unveiling nationally reverberating infra visions that shifted emphasis from projects to programmes.

The most famous was the 'Bharat Jodo' National Highway Development Programme, followed by 'Sagar Mala' — maritime infra rejuvenation, and linking of rivers. Modi's announcements of urbanization (100 smart/twin/satellite cities), railway reforms coupled with the bullet train, Golden Quadrilateral and river-linking hark back to this approach.

The UPA's programmatic initiatives like the Civil Nuclear Programme or the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor have not fired public imagination in the same way. Modi actually followed this format in Gujarat with his widely acclaimed 'Jyoti Gram' (100% electrification of villages), 'Pragati Path' for modernization of state highways, and the still-born Kalpasar project that envisaged building a 30-km dam across the Gulf of Khambatt.

So, the current infra-visioning is well attuned to his own and the BJP leadership's style. Bullet trains linking the four major cities will receive resounding resonance across India. Critics who argue about its high cost and attendant 'elitism' will be swept away by the power of an idea whose time is clearly overdue.

Modi's familiarity with bullet train economics on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai section no doubt helped shape his mind. His public posturing on reforming the railway system is also very much in order.

It proposed an Indian Rail Regulatory Authority to distance IRC from the government. And IRC must be governed by a reconstituted Indian Railways executive board. The government should be in charge of only setting policy direction. These semi-revolutionary ideas await an aggressive push.

Resurrecting the river-linking programme, though controversial, is good for India. Increasing disposable incomes will prompt voters to demand better water services. Diversification of Indian agriculture and rising energy costs will make pump irrigation increasingly unattractive.

Rapid growth in urban agglomerations will seriously strain their groundwater-dependent supply systems. The phenomenon of simultaneous droughts and floods would be substantially addressed, and inland water transport fostered. The '100 cities' plan attacks urbanization imperatives head on. But it is clearly weighted in favour of creating new cities.

New projects are always more glamorous than the struggle to make existing assets work. The need of the hour is to rejuvenate India's 3,700 urban areas (including 27 'million-plus' cities) with a 21st century selfgoverning and economically sustainable structure.

Urban governance reform should take precedence over fresh asset creation, whose outcomes, as is well-known, could stretch to over 30 years.

Infrastructure development rests on four pillars — projects and programmes, institutional frameworks, finance mobilization and access and affordability. Narendra Modi has begun his 'visioning' largely with the first. He now needs to move on and outline his plans for the balance three.